These nodal centres will then offer the facility of virtual classrooms to nearly 25 colleges located in their vicinity.

The twelve nodal centres will be set up at Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), Kanpur; Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lucknow among a host of others (see box).

The students at the nodal centres, sitting in their virtual classrooms equipped with plasma screens and computers, will also be able to interact with the teachers using video conferencing.    

Addressing the 11th annual convocation ceremony of the New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM) here, Hooda said the Government would soon pass the Private University Act to encourage private sector investment in higher education.

He urged the management of NDIM to setup a similar facility in the new Education City to come up at Kundli.

Hooda presented medals and awards to several students of the institute for their outstanding academic performances.

"The Central Government has sanctioned the setting up of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Rohtak, a B-School and a Knowledge Park on the campus of Guru Jambeshwar University in Hisar, a Central university in Mahendragarh district and the Indian National Defence University (INDU) in Gurgaon," Hooda added.

"The Bhagat Phool Singh Women's University has also been setup at Khanpur Kalan in the Sonepat district to encourage women in rural areas to go for higher education", Hooda informed.

Students, especially in the tier 2 and 3 B-school campuses, are likely to witness far fewer companies seeking them out, primarily as a fallout of the turmoil in the US markets that brings with it layoffs and a freeze in recruitments.

With supply of fresh MBAs far exceeding the demand, recruiters are likely to eye talent only in the top-rung institutes. HR personnel believe there will a 50 per cent decline in the number of companies visiting second-rung campuses.

As a way out B-schools are actively encouraging open training processes and promoting entrepreneurship among students. The sectors to be most affected are banking, financial and insurance sectors.

According to Prof L. Ganesh, Head, Department of Management, IIT Madras, "Students are anticipating a cut in salary at the entry level. Our belief is that the IT and financial sectors, which are the major recruiters, will take a knock."

Talent Management International CMD, T. Muralidharan said, "The impact on recruitment in the bigger campuses will be marginal. However, tier 2 and 3 campuses are likely to face a 50 per cent drop. Fair compensation packages as against the distorted figures prevalent last few years will be a visible."

Comeback profs: Amit Kumar, Niloy J. Mitra, Amitabh Bagchi, Vinay Ribeiro at Delhi's IIT

Here's why NRIs are coming home to the IITs:

• They feel culturally more comfortable to live and work in India

• There are research opportunities comparable to the west

• Greater involvement of industry in R&D means better funding

• IITs have a research focus: encouraging environment, space and facilities

• The NRIs fee being a part of brand IIT is creditworthy worldwide

Niloy J. Mitra, assistant professor at IIT Delhi's department of computer science and engineering, joined the faculty last year to teach computer graphics, visualisation and industrial geometry. It was the prospects of doing better research work that prompted Mitra, who has a PhD from Stanford University and post-doctoral degree from the Vienna University of Technology, to return home. Says he: "The salaries are not at all competitive but the facilities and funding are as I expected. IIT Delhi was my choice because of the great research opportunities that it offers."

Brothers Vinay and Rahul Joseph Ribeiro had no plans of returning to India. Now, Rahul teaches in the mechanical engineering department and Vinay in the computer science and engineering department of IIT Delhi. "Culturally we are more comfortable at home, there are more research opportunities here. Also, opportunity and funding from industry for research work has increased," says Vinay who studied at IIT Madras before going abroad for higher studies.

It's considered to be the toughest entrance test for any B-school across the world. Now, it's about to gain a distinction for being tough on the applicants too, right at the screening stage itself. That's the new avatar of CAT for wannabe honchos.

While the number of CAT applicants has gone up by a record number, from 2.30 lakh in 2007 to close to 3 lakh in 2008, the number of rejections too are set to be higher this year, thanks to a stringent admission procedure. Unlike before, this year applications are being rejected without notice. Usually, forms are rejected when applicants fail to attach relevant documents along with the application form.

WATCH OUT

• Rate of rejection is 0.5% to 1% every year, which might surpass 2% this year
  
• Once rejected, students miss chance to get into not just the IIMs but also any of the 98 CAT-affiliated institutes
  
• Practice of giving students three-four days to submit missing documents and details has been discontinued by the CAT committee this year
  
• CAT committee avoided divulging any numbers regarding rejected applications

Once rejected, students miss the chance to get into not just the IIMs but also any of the 98 CAT-affiliated institutes. The practice of giving students three-four days to submit missing documents and details has been discontinued by the CAT committee this year. On Friday, several instances of students getting rejected for not attaching a bank pay-in-slip came to light on the last day of compiling applications.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for setting up these new universities while upgrading four existing state universities, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said.

Among the states where the 12 new central universities would be set up include Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka. Apart from these institutes, Sagar University in Madhya Pradesh, Bilaspur University in Chhattisgarh, Garhwal University in Uttarakhand and Goa University would be upgraded as central universities. Significantly, most of the selected states are currently ruled by non-Congress parties and all the election-bound states have been allotted an institute.

Dasmunsi said a Bill would be introduced for this purpose in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also gave its approval for the Rs 325-crore scheme to provide quality education in Madrassas. The government wants to introduce science, mathematics, social studies, language and English in their curriculum for classes 1 to 12 apart from the religious teachings.

Four years ago, there were 640 animation studios across the country. This number is now down to around 300, with UTV Toons being the latest to do so. Sources claim that Reliance ADAG-owned Big Animation recently laid-off a sizeable number of its pre-production artists.

In sharp contrast, animation-training institutes are thriving while their students are not always able to get jobs. In Pune alone, the number of training institutes is now 26 from a mere 10 two years ago. These institutes train almost 4,000 students in courses ranging from three to 20 months. The fees range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh, depending on the duration of the course.

This translates into an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore for the training business. Most of the institutes have tie-ups with some overseas partners whose credentials cannot always be checked out. And most of these training institutes dangle the lollipop of guaranteed huge initial salaries, seemingly worthwhile for students to pay the fees.

The animation training industry is now sunrise sector as investors from sectors as diverse as real estate and jewellery have jumped into the industry. India's education sector is seen as a $500-million opportunity. While the industry needs people with artistic skills, industry insiders say that training institutes focus solely on supplying people who know just tools.

As a result, organisations have to increase the prices of their products and services. This not only harms the competitiveness of individual companies but directly or indirectly contributes to the national inflation spiral. This in turn impacts overall national competitiveness.

Time and again, human resource managers from diverse industries and from different parts of the country share their difficulties in finding appropriate talent for their organisations. The paradox is that the second most populous nation in the world should be suffering from talent shortage.

Is it a systemic failure? A failure of the market economy? A failure in the allocation of resources? Or is it a failure to appreciate the critical role of appropriate talent in the national economic development process?

To resolve any problem we need to understand its causes. As in the case with other business issues, talent shortage needs to be defined and alternative solution driven roadmaps critically examined for their effectiveness. One of the main reasons for the talent shortage lies in the misalignment of the 3Es: Education , Employability of talent and the Economy.

In India, talent shortages originate from the spontaneous growth of new sectors (off-shoring , IT, telecom , retail, real estate and most recently insurance), mis-match between the ever-evolving industry requirements and almost static education system, lack of required importance to vocational training and soft skills and the inappropriate talent development techniques adopted by institutions responsible for developing human talent.

As fallout, there are industry segments that are not able to find resources needed to staff their businesses . On the other hand, the employability of talent developed by the educational system is as low as 15% for certain skill categories.

As a result, industry has to incur huge additional costs on training even to perform the entry level jobs. This is a waste of corporate resources and has widespread implications for the long term profitability and sustainability of certain services and sectors.

In most cases, the talent shortage gaps begin with the `one-size-fit-all' approach to education, at the primary and secondary levels and lack of application based or employment oriented learning. From the perspectives of most industries, the softer elements and behavioural essentials are critical. For example, simple mind-set issues such as learnability , attitude to change, team-spirit , ability to strike a conversation and drive to achieve results have to be encouraged in the talent pool.

There is an urgent need to transform our traditional educational system into a flexible outward looking one -- a system that acknowledges and appreciates experimentation and innovation in learning.

Keeping in view the fast changing business environment ; increasing integration of technologies in various business processes and systems; onslaught of innovations and disruptive technologies the talent need assessments have to be situation specific as well as futuristic in scope.

It is not just the big companies. Even mid-size and smaller IT companies are going slow on recruitments due to the uncertainty in business from the US, which is the single-largest market for these companies, says L Venkataesan, a placement consultant based in Tiruchy.

JJ College of Engineering in Tiruchy, till before last year, saw almost 95 per cent of its  students being placed. S Parthasarthy, director (placements, JJ College), said between January and September last year, 200 students were selected of which 50 got offer letters.

This year, only two have been selected. Earlier, almost all the top IT companies like Infosys, HCL, Satyam, Cognizant and TCS visited campuses for offering jobs. But this year, except Infosys, which recruited just one student, none of the companies turned up, he added.

Private schools have already written to the Directorate of Education seeking permission for the hike.

"We have calculated the hikes as per the Sixth Pay Commission report. The increments of various grades of teachers ranges from 50 to 65 per cent across schools," said S.L. Jain, chairperson of National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC), an organization of some of the prominent schools of Delhi.

He added that arrears would have to be paid for 32 months.

"We are obliged to pay salaries and allowances as per government rules.

Since all our income comes from tuition fees, a hike is imminent," said Jain.

But the Directorate of Education has said it would not allow a blanket hike in fees across schools.

"We will evaluate the financial position of schools and the fee hike will be decided depending on the funds available with schools," said Chandrabhushan Kumar, Director (Education).

Jain, however, said the government did not have the machinery to conduct checks across all schools.

"Even if a school has managed its finances well and has surplus fund, that fund is earmarked for specific purpose like gratuity and infrastructural development. It is not meant for paying salary to teachers," said Jain.